Several years ago when it was thought that very few stars had planetary systems the idea of rogue planets seemed at best outlandish. But now that it is believed that a high percentage of stars have a planetary system I wonder what becomes of the planets that survive the death of a star. Does the remnant of the star have enough gravity to keep it's planets in tow or do they slowly drift away from their dead parent. If this is so and since the sun is a fourth or fifth generation star it seems to me that there ought to be a good number of unattached planets in the voids between stars. Also if they are out there could we ever detect one?

I doubt that one would be a likely candidate as a home for ET but who knows?
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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

There probably are lots of them flying around out there. But I doubt we'll ever find one. It would be a bit like looking for a piece of pollen in the ocean using a cotton ball.

And while it's true that life is extremely unlikely, we can't totally rule it out. If Jupiter got flung out into space Io would still be hot, since its heat comes from tidal effects. It's possible that somewhere in this giant universe of ours something like that has happened.